Week 52 - Almost the End....

Christmas was a super affair and I went to town on the table decorations!

We had a lovely meal of roast turkey with all the trimmings washed down with our favourite bottle of Montpulciano d'Abruzzo.

Practical  xmas prezzies below of a cockerel stapler and a cat sellotape dispenser, perfect for my office!

Below a collage created with Photogrid, an app on my smartphone.  It is very easy to use and produces nice results:

As you can see, Freddy is on his own now.  He misses his band of loyal chickens very much and has hence doubled his efforts to go for me at any opportunity!!  Especially when I wear my warm red jumper, this makes him chase me even more.  I can't wait for when we buy him 4 new chicks to keep him company.  We went to the local chicken place before Christmas to buy them, but we were told they won't have any young 'layers' til the end of January...... so no fresh eggs at the moment, and I miss them!!

Skype calls to the family made the day extra special and phone calls from a few close friends were also lovely to receive.

Blow a picture of the cats all tucked up, sleeping together outside.  Although we have quite a few comfy cat 'resting boxes' in different places, they all somehow manage to squeeze into this old cardboard box on my potting bench!! 

 

This year has been a wonderful one, but it isn't over quite yet!!
I will write a few words to round up the project, in my final closing post.  Til then, happy new year!!

Week 39 - all go in the garden!

 

This tiny toad was spotted in one of my pots and I had to take a photo of it.  It is so camouflaged that it is not easy

to see it.  Behind it an old owl tea light holder that lost one of its legs, now reclines against the wall watching over the plant pot.  Lots of lavendar cuttings surround the toad.

My compost bin is getting filled with spent veggie plants, especially the tomatoes, which are almost finished now.  I chop up the stems as finely as possible as it makes it easier to degrade.  

 

There must be thousands if not millions (not sure if I am now exaggerating here) of creepie crawlies in the compost bin underneath the new additions and I hate to see the mass moving and swaying together with a gentle whirring noise as they all get down to doing what they do... 

I use this plastic container to put my chopped bits when I am preparing food, and then it goes straight to the compost bin on a daily basis.   Used tea bags, celery leaves, end bits of peppers, onion peelings, lemon rinds, everything that can be composted goes in!

Leaves are beginning to fall so I am carefully picking them up and adding to old compost sacks with holes in them to make nice, firiable leaf mulch for the spring.

Below a sleeping cat lying in my rockery area!!! 

This fig tree was growing way out of hand and so I have pruned it back and it now looks much neater!

An elephant bench in the shade of the fig tree

I sometimes come here to sit and view the lovely countryside below...

Rosemary bush growing rampantly.  There is more than enough here to use in all my cooking!

This bay leaf tree got cut in half during a windy storm and we thought we had lost it, but is is now growing back very nicely.  I think I need to reshape it by cutting off all the offshoots at the bottom of the tree.

Roll on Week 40!!!

Week 30 - Feeding Time Mayhem

What a chaotic and hectic week with full-time furkid duties!  Trying to feed a horde of animals takes a lot of skill and planning and sadly I lack the military precision necessary for a smooth operation.  There is a clear and strict order of events, chicks off to their pen first, then cats are fed, then girls are walked and fed.  This week it has all gone a bit pear-shaped with the chicks refusing to go to their pen, hence kitties working themselves into a ravenous frenzy desperate for food.  I got my timing all wrong on Monday and the chickens ended up scoffing most of the cat food and everyone tucked up way too late... a bit of a disaster really.

 Socks waiting for her dinner...

Freddy waiting for me from outside...

The problem is that Freddy has turned on me twice now and it hurt!!!  He knows I am afraid of him, so I have to wait til he voluntarily goes to his pen at night before I can shut it and then feed the cats, then the girls... He deliberately hung around in the garden with his beady eyes waiting for me to come out with the cat food plates on a tray.  I dropped the tray and the plates and ran for the door, leaving all the masses to fight amongst themselves.  It is never mayhem when K does it, but he has had military training and this certainly comes in very handy for such duties!!

Tuesday was a bit better, but still Freddy and co got into their pen at 7.45pm, way past their usual bedtime of 6.15pm. Wednesday I had everyone fed, watered and walked and tucked up by 8pm, and I felt I was getting somewhere at last! At least the girls obey me and we have a nice time walking in the beautiful countryside.  They don't go near their food bowls until I give them a special signal. They sit obediently until I clap my hands and say 'OK!' and then they dash to their bowls.  They are not allowed to start eating until I give them this signal.  I wish cats were as polite and restrained as dogs! 

Samantha and me .....

 This statue of 2 cats is tucked into my mini salad area....

My cherry tomatoes are coming along fine, but so much smaller than the usual tomatoes I have sown in the past!!

 

I was so glad I was protected from this giant hornet by the mosquito frame we have installed.  It was buzzing around angrily just outside the kitchen window and it couldn't fly in through the mesh, thank goodness!  I hate hornets, because they can be very dangerous.

 

It rained buckets and there was lots of thunder and lightning during the weekend!! I had lots of buckets to collect as much of the rain as possible for me to use for watering my plants!!!

 

It was nice to be cheered up by this Castelli mosaic on the coffee table in the kitchen.  It was also lovely to have family visiting and we had a lot of fun together, despite the terrible weather....

We all listened to 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams!  It is used in Zumba classes and for school assemblies for motivation purposes.

 


My niece made me this lovely beaded chain to hang around my neck when I wear my glasses.  It is really pretty and I won't lose my glasses now!

I suggested interesting places to visit in Abruzzo and this book, called Travels in Abruzzo by Ed di Vitto, is full of lovely cartoons which tell a story about Abruzzo and all the beautiful sights.

This week was very busy but enjoyable!  Roll on Week 31

Week 25

I spotted this grasshopper on one of my gladioli on Sunday evening, and I instantly rushed inside to get my camera.  It was quite a big creature as you can see.

I have begun adding a few of owls from my collection to my pots, just to give them a extra little touch. 

T-shirts
I bought myself a new t-shirt this week and it is an Italy one.  I have always supported both England and Italy in World Cup matches.  I was very disappointed to see England perform so dismally and lose their first 2 matches.  They are now well and truly out of the world cup and their next match against Costa Rica, will be rather meaningless.  I do hope they will go all out to score a few goals, just to at least win 3 points!!
Will Italy make it through to the next stage, I wonder? They play Uruguay next week....

 

 

As I am on the theme of t-shirts, I thought I would hunt out a few in my drawer, which have a special meaning for me!

Below the t-shirt I bought in Assen in 2004 for the Moto GP.  Valentino Rossi came first in that race and went on to become World Champion that year.  I have worn it lots of times and washed it, and it is in fairly good condition after 10 years!

 

Below is one of my most treasured gifts from a group of FCE students, given to me 15 years ago.  I have never worn it because I want to keep it for as long as possible without having to wash it, and risk having the lovely messages being washed away.  Reading them all again after all these years, made me smile, and  look back with great fondness for that particular class, who were a delight to teach.  They got this t-shirt made for me as their leaving gift. The joke is that I always asked them to come to class 'on the dot', as I was (and still am) very strict regarding punctuality. 

The weather this week was mostly miserable with lots of heavy rain coming down in buckets.  Our road is now well and truly a mess again, and all the work done on it recently has come undone.... This has made us feel a bit despondant, and will mean more communication with the local comune..... I really hate having to write emails / letters about this issue.

It is now set to be very hot and sunny over the next few days, so at least that will be good to get out in the garden again.

Below one of my gladioli that has come out - the colour is really vibrant and looks lovely in a vase!

I gathered lots of buckets and containers to collect all the rainfall. I was able to collect nearly 60 litres of water, to use in my garden. This will save a little bit on our water bill.  

One of the kttens has decided to use a pot planted with lillies as a sleeping area.....

 

Victoria has taken to sleeping in an Orlando cardboard box, which I placed for her on top of a small table.  She loves it!  These boxes come in useful for all sorts of recycling purposes, and when I finish with them, they go straight into the compost bin.

So Week 25, has been a bit frustrating, with the weather, the road coming undone so quickly and with England out of the World Cup so soon.  Let's hope Italy can go through to the next round, as that will be something to cheer about :-)

Roll on Week 26, the halfway point of the year!!

Week 21 - The Road & Countryside Pursuits

This week has basically been about our road.

The picture below shows you how perpendicular the angle was and our bumper was beginning to touch the road, scraping it and doing it damage. A quick temporary fix had been implemented to enable us to get out and about.

As a result of the constant friction between ground and bumper, our car is now under repair.. k has been busy fixing it, 3 new tyres ordered, which arrived mid-week after only a few days. My heart in my mouth every time we went up and down.The image below really doesn't do the terrible condition of the road justice. The middle bit was extremely steep!!!

Anyways, at least it was better than it was in December 2013.....

 
News Update
Our road has been fixed by the Comune, and it is now looking a lot better in the most terrible sections!

It looks rather rocky, and indeed big stones have been laid down in some parts.  We are hoping the Comune will add a finer layer on top of this..

Part of the top layer of our road..

 

What we would like to be added to the road...

 

We are very happy that this work has been undertaken, and we are very grateful towards the Comune.  We have heard through the grapevine that parts of our road may even have tarmac added, and this would be amazing.  Watch this space!!

Grubs
This week I have been out in earnest catching snails and then depositing them in our field as far away from my plants as possible.  I read that if they are placed 65 feet away from where you find them, they won't come back to the same place (ie pots).  Let's see if this works!  They have been decimating my plants, and this is not ok!

I have also been digging out all my fresh compost from the compost bin, to add to the veggie plot and towards the bottom I found quite a few of these grubs.  Please look away if you are squeamish!

I then placed them in front of the chicken pen and Freddy and co had a feast gobbling them all up in an instant!   

Thus, the life cycle goes round and round and then the chicken droppings will go straight into the compost bin and the grubs will turn the mixed contents of the bin around to make lovely fresh friable compost.  Nothing at all is wasted, and the book below, Soil, Humus & Manuring, printed in the year I was born, is providing me with invaluable advice about the gentle art of composting!!  It makes for fascinating bedtime reading, and I am not joking :-)  It's a really practical handbook.

 

Contents of the compost bin have been dug out:

 Not much left!

 

Added to the veggie plot area, ready to be spread out before planting begins in earnest at the end of May.

I have also been using this fresh compost in my flower pots and for seedlings.

Furkids' Update

One of the new kittens peeking out of a box

Samantha gazing out

It has been a very busy week, but ultimately very satisfying.  Roll on Week 22!

Week 17

Nursing Fluffy back to health has taken up a lot of time this week.  He is getting so bored and he really wants to be let out, but his wounds really need to heal completely.  Even the vet said he was in a very bad state when he examined him, and we were worried he may have used up his proverbial 9 lives.  We were wrong, luckily, and now it is just a waiting game until we can let him out again.  

The weather has been very bad, lots of rain and again, my plants have had to be moved around a bit to avoid getting completely washed out....

We have booked a train trip next week and we are very excited!

It will go from Chieti, and then into the National Park to Cocullo for the Serpent Festival Parade, an age-old Abruzzo custom.  You can read more about this strange festival on Life in Abruzzo.
I am not sure I like the idea of snakes all over the place, but I am hoping to take some interesting photos and then I can add them here.  

I have learned a new word: ophidiophiliacs (snake-lovers)!

The grass has been growing lush and below is the freshly mown lawn with resident feline ambling across......

The figs are developing nicely...

The rosemary bushes dotted around the garden are also getitng bigger...

I throw lots of it into everything I cook!

Some of my containers below, I have to check them every night for snails, which I remove and throw back into nature... the slugs are added into the blue pot and then emptied out later.....

Some of my seedlings and young cuttings are getting ravaged by snails as seen below...... The many sticks are to deter the cats from using the area as a litter tray!  They seem to be able to squeeze themselves into such tiny spaces!

Below some more tubs, with Mini Me loitering in a suspicious fashion ......  You can see some cherry tomato plants right at the front.

We currently have ant invasions on a large scale, so I am dealing with this problem, again at night, when they are most active......

It is all go here, nature wise, and I am enjoying this chance to settle back into the gentle and peaceful way of living here in Abruzzo..... 

Below you can see Freddy and chick hovering in front of the door whilst it is pouring with rain outside. 

 
I have not attended nor presented at the 7th Virtual Round Table e-conference this year, but I hope to catch up with some of the talks as soon as I have a spare moment :-)